Mass layoffs jump in Texas

Mass layoffs — layoffs of 50 or more people at a time — plagued Texas in March, with 112 instances, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. That’s third most in the nation, behind only California (498) and Pennsylvania (140).

It’s also a huge increase from the 36 mass layoffs in March 2008, but is down from 113 layoffs in Feburary and 136 in January.

Texas also had 14,284 initial claims for unemployment insurance, up from the 5,105 initial claims in March 2008. Again, that’s the third-most in the country, behind California (38,130) and Illinois (18,096).

Nationwide, there were 2,933 mass layoffs in March, which created nearly 300,000 newly unemployed workers.